"I do not see that man."
Translation:Nie widzę tamtego mężczyzny.
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In previous excersises: i have used the word "tego" in this context and it was correct. Of course, the previous excersise was not negated, but read as follows: "i see that man" which i translated as "widzę tego mężczyzny". It said i was correct. In this excersise, i used tego (Nie widzę tego mężczyzny) and said i should have used " tamtej" (or something along those lines)...why?
2082
Please remind me: does a 'nie' cause the direct object to take the genitive case? With mężczyzny, it is irregular, so it has a feminine negative ending, but a masculine article?
Exercises like what you describe are currently being tested in the Spanish course.
No, "I see that man" is translated a bit differently. "widzieć" takes Accusative, and Accusative of "tamten mężczyzna" is "tamtego mężczyznę".
Now, negated Accusative results in Genitive (other cases stay unchanged when negated). "tamtego" stays the same, but it's "mężczyzny" indeed.
Normally words for male people (masculine animate nouns, to be exact) have Accusative and Genitive cases identical. This is one of exceptions because "mężczyzna" looks like a feminine noun, even if it's masculine.
"tamtego" is either Genitive masculine (as here), Genitive neuter, or Accusative for masculine animate nouns. "tamtej" is Genitive feminine.
What does that mean? This article explains it all: https://www.clozemaster.com/blog/polish-demonstrative-pronouns/